Earthquake lifted Lombok by 25 centimetres

AP reports that scientists said that the powerful Indonesian earthquake that killed nearly 400 people lifted the island of Lombok by as much as 25 centimetres (10 inches).

The National Disaster Mitigation Agency said on Saturday that 387 people died, jumping from the 321 it reported the previous day, as search and rescue teams continued to sift through the rubble and people already buried by relatives are accounted for.

Using satellite images of Lombok from the days following the Aug. 5 quake, scientists from NASA and the California Institute of Technology’s joint rapid imaging project made a ground deformation map and measured changes in the island’s surface.

In the northwest of the island near the epicenter, the rupturing faultline lifted the earth by a quarter of a meter. In other places it dropped by 5-15 centimeters (2-6 inches).

NASA said satellite observations can help authorities respond to earthquakes and other natural or manmade disasters.

Almost 390,000 people, about 10 percent of Lombok’s population, are homeless or displaced after the earthquake, which damaged and destroyed about 68,000 homes.

Disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said three districts in the north of Lombok still haven’t received any assistance. The governor of West Nusa Tenggara province, which includes Lombok, has extended the official emergency period by two weeks to Aug. 25.